A dozen HGVs were parked in front of a shopping centre in Moscow’s northwestern suburb of Khimki, in early March. Some had signs on their windscreens: “Price rises: the tax on lorry drivers affects everyone”, “They are robbing truck drivers and pensioners”. I had to climb on a stack of pallets to reach the trailer that served as the camp’s headquarters. Inside were a table, a stove where sausages were grilling, a printer and a ventilation system that made the steel box vibrate from time to time. It was 7pm, and the conversation tailed off. Two bored-looking policemen stood a few metres away. The Khimki “camp”, and its counterpart in St Petersburg, bring together drivers who still refuse to give up the struggle, the last remnants of a social movement that affected dozens of Russian regions last winter. According to the website of the Centre for Social and Labour Rights, an NGO that publishes a bimonthly report on social conflicts in Russia, “there have been no labour disputes on this scale, in terms of number of participants and regions affected, since 1998.”

With around 1.8m HGVs carrying goods on Russian roads, there are nearly 2 million drivers. and in its early days, the protest movement attracted a significant proportion. Nearly 17,000 took part in go-slows and other industrial action in Dagestan, a federal republic of the Northern Caucasus, whose drivers carry products from Iran, Azerbaijan and Turkey ; hundreds of rallies took place in other regions between November and February. But that evening in Khimki, only nine strikers were holding the camp.

The protests ended the approval that the Russian government had enjoyed despite the severe recession (the economy shrank by 3.7% in 2015) caused by western sanctions imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and the oil price fall in 2015. It seems the ability of the Russian people to tolerate a fall in real incomes (by 4%) has reached its limit. The truckers were the first to be affected by the crisis, as their (...)

(3) The price continued to fall until January 2016, reaching $28 per barrel, before recovering to $48 in mid-May.

(4) This brings together “alternative” unions with no historical link to the Soviet era unions, which had strong links with the Communist Party apparatus and today are not inclined to dissent.

(5) In 1991 the government handed out vouchers that could be exchanged for shares, worth 10,000 roubles, to Russian citizens, who sold them on, at well below face value, to investment funds or individuals from their senior management.

(6) In February 2014 an article was added to Russia’s criminal code, making participants in unauthorised public gatherings liable to administrative arrest, with repeat offenders subject to a five-year prison term and a fine of 1m roubles.